Vettel uncertain on Ferrari pace after “tough” week

Sebastian Vettel has held reservations on where Ferrari will be in the Formula 1 pecking order for 2018 after the first pre-season test due to disrupt track running caused by snow and rain.

The four-time F1 world champion has been playing catch-up after completing unrepresentative running in very cold conditions on his Ferrari SF71H track debut on Tuesday, before seeing Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen lose all of Wednesday’s track time to snow and rain, which has placed extra emphasis on Vettel’s second track day which concludes the first test.

Vettel feels it is too early to predict how much Ferrari has developed from last year, while ruling out how it compares to his F1 rivals, and blames the limited running for Ferrari being behind its projected plan.

Despite his caution, Vettel remains optimistic Ferrari have produced an F1 car which builds on its 2017 success when he clinched five F1 race wins and led the drivers’ world championship until round 13 at the Italian Grand Prix.

“Anything is possible,” Vettel said. “So far, things have been looking okay, but there has been very limited running for everyone, so it's very difficult not just for yourself to judge but also to judge compared to the others.

“To be honest though it's not that important in the first week. You just want to make sure the car is running. But that's been tough as well because there wasn't that much running.

“It's a new car so everybody's excited. It's just a bit of a shame when you don't run as much as you can. But I think it's the same up and down the pit lane as everyone is keen to get some running about you're not able to tick all the boxes and can't find an answer to all the questions that you have.”